Consummate terribly unfunny jokester Senator John McCain—he of the infamous gorilla rape quip—is back at it again on Twitter, this time with a crack about how Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is nothing but a monkey. Get it?

Naturally, because of the long, well-researched, and dangerous history
of white men like John McCain mocking and condemning people of color as apes, some people were offended by McCain's joke. The senator's reaction to the criticism was telling everyone to "lighten up
," of course, because when you're offended by an old rich white guy calling a brown person a monkey, it's always your
sensitivity that's the problem, not his
insensitivity. One person who refused to lighten up was McCain's Republican congressional colleague Justin Amash
, an Arab American representing Michigan's Third District:

Maybe you should wisen up & not make racist jokes. “@senjohnmccain: Re: Iran space tweet - lighten up folks, can't everyone take a joke?”

Kudos to Amash, who is still in his first term. His willingness to stand up for what he believes and beat back against the bigoted tradition's of his party's history should earn him a frustrating and feckless stay in the Republican leadership.